Tech Interviews

Software defining your storage – Andy Scholl -Ep94 by Tech Interviews

The technology world is constantly evolving, what we do with Tech, what it does for us, how we can use it to do things differently and more quickly, innovation is core to the technology industry. One of the fastest moving areas of innovation right now is the development of voice as a way for us to interact with our data and technology platforms, opening new ways for us to perform a wide variety of tasks, from asking your voice assistant to add to the shopping list to making technology accessible in a way its not been before, voice is an exciting, fast moving and fast-growing part of the tech industry.

But how is voice going to change the way we operate as enterprises? Is voice starting to move from the consumer world to the business one? That's the subject of this week's Tech Interviews, as I'm joined by two guests, Geraint John and Will Bradley from Move Digital and importantly for this show, the hosts of the fantastic Voice for Voice podcast.

In this week's episode, we explore the growing world of voice and how it has the potential to be the biggest technology shift since the Internet revolutionised how we use technology in our everyday lives.

We cover:

*What is Voice and why we need to take it seriously

*How voice is a more intuitive way for us to interact with technology

*How voice may be the platform of choice for the next wave of innovation

*How voice is moving from consumer to enterprise

*What does the future look like?

Geraint and Will provide a great introduction into the world of voice and its potential to revolutionise how we use technology and some of the work that they are doing with their customers in this fascinating space.

Enjoy the show and thanks for listening

Full show notes here: https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Fy

In the final part of our series on architecting for Public Cloud we take a slightly different tact to the previous parts which focussed on Cloud as a more primary goal. In this episode, we focus more on the tactical use of Cloud, when the wholesale move to Cloud isn’t the aim but more how we can use it in specific parts of our organisation to deliver better outcomes, improve our technology or serve our customers better.

To do that I’m joined by NetApp Cloud Architect, Phoebe Goh. Phoebe is our first Australian guest and brings an interesting perspective to the show and provides the perfect way to wrap up our brief series, by bringing together themes from our last two shows as well as her own fresh ideas.

In this episode we discuss:

*The role of the Cloud Architect

*How Cloud is not just about Tech

*How non-Cloud companies are using

Cloud to deliver outcomes

*How NetApp are using Cloud in their

business and technology

*How Public Cloud in coming into the

Datacentre

*How simplification is key in Cloud

adoption

Phoebe is a great guest with a range of fascinating insights into how Cloud can be a major part of the modern business.

Next time we explore the world of Voice and how it’s revolutionising the way we interact with Technology, to make sure you don’t miss it then remember to subscribe to Tech Interviews.

Full show notes are here: https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Fm

Cybersecurity is at the top of the list of priorities for organisations of all types, as our systems and data become ever more critical to how we operate on a daily basis, the risk posed by security threats, such as malware, data leakage and targeted attacks continues to grow and be even more complex.

The challenge in improving our security posture and ensuring we limit the vulnerabilities of our IT systems is a big one and not solved easily by one technology solution or the pressing of the big red security button. It is complex and like all complex problems often the hardest step in addressing it is knowing where to start? Like most challenges in IT, the starting point is to understand where you are right now, what systems you have and where they are vulnerable.

That is the focus of this week’s podcast as we discuss penetration testing. Pen tests are designed to identify your system vulnerabilities and help to mitigate the risks they pose to your organisation. To help me explore this topic I’m joined by Phil Graham, Phil is a Director at security specialists Secora Consulting and has spent the last 8 years developing his pen testing skills.

In this week's show we discuss;

*What is a pen test

*What scope does a test have

*The Business impact of vulnerabilities

*Why pen test?

*Pen tests are not just for external testing

*Tips on getting a pen test and how to remediate your vulnerabilities

Phil shares some great info and I certainly learned a lot and I'm sure you will too.

Thanks for listening.

Full show notes are here: https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1F4

Be Sure before you Azure – Sarah Lean – Ep90 by Tech Interviews

The adoption of public cloud continues to grow and remains high on the list of priorities of those tasked with delivering technology solutions to their business, be you someone making strategic decisions or the IT pro tasked with delivery of services, the move to public cloud brings with it a whole set of new challenges.

How do I design my cloud infrastructure? How do I integrate it with what I have? How do I get my crucial on-prem assets into the public cloud? Are just some of the questions we ask and need answers to so we can ensure we successfully take advantage of public cloud to deliver better services and outcomes to our organisations, how then do we find those answers and how should we approach our cloud transition?

Over the next three Tech Interviews episodes, in conversation with Cloud Architects and transition specialists we are going to explore just that. In this first episode we look at Cloud transition, as I’m joined by Eric Kraieski, Vice President of the Software Business Unit at Transitional Data Services (TDS), Eric has 10 years of experience in the area of Cloud transition making him a great guest to kick off this series of shows.

During this show we discuss;

* The challenges of transition to cloud

* The importance of aligning your project with business goals

* The impact of not properly planning

* Tips on avoiding common mistakes

* Advice on building a successful migration strategy

Eric provides some fantastic insight and gets our short series off to a great start. Next time we'll be looking at the world of Microsoft Azure.

Until then, thanks for listening.

Full Show Notes : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1E6

As the importance of our data continues to grow, so does our need to scale its use, be it for performance, resilience or reasons of data locality, the need to architect solutions and find technologies to support this demand for data at scale is increasingly important.

If we look at the way cloud giants use their data, it's clear that "traditional" database methods are not going to be suitable and of course it's not just "cloud giants" who need their data at scale, today, enterprises of all types need to be able to present their data with the same scale, flexibility and resilience.

One widely adopted way of doing this is using Apache Cassandra as a database technology. But why? and how does Cassandra differ from our traditional on-prem solutions such as SQL and Oracle?

That is the topic of this week's Tech Interviews as Patrick Callaghan, Solutions Architect at Datastax joins me to provide an intro to Cassandra as a database technology, how it works and why it's becoming the database of choice in the modern webscale world.

In this episode we discuss;

*Cassandra's beginning at Facebook

* Why you may need a scalable, distributed database

* What challenges does it bring

* Why automation at your busiest times is perhaps not the answer

* Webscale database use cases

* Where Datastax can help

Patrick is a great guest and provided a fantastic intro to the world of Cassandra and what it can mean for the way we handle data in this distributed, webscale world.

Next week we start a brief series talking with Cloud Architects and Migration specialists about making a success of Public Cloud Projects, too make sure you catch that show then please subscribe in all of the usual podcast places and until next time, Thanks for listening.

Full show notes are here: https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1DZ

The ever-evolving cyber threat and how to protect ourselves against It continues to be at the top of the list of priorities for most IT Pros and execs. As technology and our data is more crucial than ever to our day to day operations, the threat of disruption to it and the impact that will have grows almost exponentially.

As we head into February of 2019, what is the current state of the threat? How is it evolving? And how do we build a plan to handle it? That is the topic of this week's Tech Interviews, as I'm joined by Co-Founder and CPO of Infocyte Inc. Chris Gerritz to discuss the art of Cyber Threat Hunting and taking a more proactive approach to the cybersecurity challenge.

In this chat with Chris, we take a look at what we mean by cyber threat hunting, the importance of a proactive approach to cyber threats and why we should "assume breach" when we build our cybersecurity defences.

We also discuss current threats, emerging trends from commodity malware to identity theft, as well as avoiding been the "weakest Gazelle in the pack".

Chris shares some insights into developing a cyber threat hunting strategy and how to build a secure environment, as well as providing some background on Infocyte's approach to the challenge

If you enjoyed the show, then please leave us a review and why not subscribe to ensure you get the latest Tech Interviews episode.

Thanks for listening.

Full show notes are here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1DS

On Tuesday of this week (January 22nd, 2019) Veeam made a series of announcements around their technology stack, these announcements showed, in my opinion, the first elements of them really starting to deliver the technology to underpin their intelligent data management strategy that they first shared back in 2017.

In this extra edition of Tech Interviews, I wanted to explore some of the key parts of these announcements and why I believe they are an important step in starting to shift Veeam from a backup company to one that can start to play a part in the orchestration and management of data within the modern enterprise.

Michael Cade, Global Technologists at Veeam joins me to discuss the announcements and provide insight into what's driven some of the strategic shifts, as well as providing some detail into the technology updates that are underpinning these changes.

During the show we discuss, Cloud storage integration, the expansion of Veeam's workload portability capability and finish up looking at some key updates to Data Labs and how it helps guarantee the consistency of your data and apps wherever and whenever you need them.

I hope you enjoyed this additional show, as I thought it would be useful to provide some context to these announcements.

Thanks for listening.

Show notes are here : https://bit.ly/2HtmZCw

Social media, it’s a phrase that we constantly hear, the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. are commonplace, but does social media have a place in our day to day professional lives?

Social media has great value, not just in terms of developing relationships, but also in how we are perceived, both as individuals and as businesses, regardless of whether your business is a technology one. How many of us, before we buy a product or service, visit a website or Facebook page before buying? Or take to Twitter for support on a product or service? And of course, how many of us, when making a new contact head off to LinkedIn to check them out?

Social media tools are a core component of 21st-century communications, so the question is, why do so many IT pro’s and IT execs not take the time to invest in social media?

On this week’s show, I’m joined by one of the people, that thanks to social media, I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, Richard Bliss.

Richard is a social media strategist and works with senior execs in global businesses and helps them to develop their online profile so they can better promote themselves, their businesses and engage better with a wider audience.

In a fascinating chat, we cover a wide range of topics, including;

* Defining what we mean by social media

* Common Myths

* The impact of 21st Century Communications tools and the perception not using them creates

*The modern buyer's journey.

Richard finished by providing some great tips on developing your Linkedin profile, as well as a discussion on his endless board game collection!

Richard provides some valuable insights that will help anyone trying to improve their digital presence.

Full show notes are here : https://bit.ly/2SW27VM